The Hierarchy of Gods
by Combination-NC
Summary: Post-coital religious discussion; is Loki really a God?


p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He knows Steve has been carrying the question in his heart through the many different incarnations of their relationship; from enemies to captor and prisoner, the tentative truce to acquaintances growing into something close friends, onwards to the unlikelihood of whatever one might call this. Lovers, perhaps, even if only temporarily./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Because mortals, with their lives so quickly spent, make for poor long-term companions with their fickle affections; but at least for now there is something akin to that between them for him to enjoy, for as long or shortly it will last./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Are... are you, really?" does it come at last, after a soft-spoken request to voice his wonder as they lay nestled together, breaths even and calm./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Loki lets out a quiet span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"hmm/span, lightly tracing his fingertips along Steve's collarbones. "Many things", he smiles, though he knows full well which one he means./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Don't do that", Steve huffs. "You know what I mean, I can tell" he scolds, though it is not without fondness. He turns his head towards him, and the stern form of his features draws a laugh from Loki, the sound surprisingly bright with a joy he cannot explain./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I do", he admits, because he does not lie nearly as much as his reputation suggests. Steve holds his breath, and Loki lets the silence stretch not to force the question outright from Steve's lips but for his own hesitance in the face of the gravity of the moment. This, too, is something his Captain can tell. "Yes", he sighs after a while, reluctant because of all the things he likes to prod at and test, the Captain's faith is not one of them. "Although", he adds, "it might depend on what you believe makes a godly being."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""How so?" Steve asks with an air a mixture of dread and curiosity./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Loki nuzzles into his shoulder, as if to add some comfort to take the edge off his words. "I know what your brand of mortals believe", he starts. "A being able to send his son to your earth in guise of being one of your own, to walk the land and learn and teach?" He sighs, thinking of Thor's still body under the sun. That had never been part of his plan. "And then let him have a mortal death, perish due to someone else's folly only to wake him from it and call him home?" He furrows his brows, trying to recall more of the story, mouth curving into a small smile. "And a son that may walk on water, or turn it into wine at his whim? That, we certainly have in common with your... Lord, is it? Alone in his power, reigning over all?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Steve nods, silent and uncertain. Worried, perhaps, of learning of something he might come to regret; but true to himself as ever, he does not shy away from it./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Such a lonely God to believe in," Loki murmurs with a wistfulness that betrayed he could imagine all too well just how lonely such a being might feel before raising his voice to answer. "We are able to do such things. And from the seat of Hliðskjálf, Thor's father is able to look upon all of the Realms." span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Or look down on/span, he adds to himself with some bitterness. "Heimdall holds such a power within himself, only to a greater magnitude. We may travel upon prayers—"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Wait", Steve cuts in. "Travel on prayers?" Loki nods./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Prayers directed towards us— they can be heard. Walking between the worlds is a simple thing with a prayer to guide you. Well. For some of us." His smile turns wry. "Though if only Thor's Lady had known to pray, even he might have been able to come to her aid to answer it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Steve turns on his side to better look him in the eye, propping himself up on an elbow. "I sense a 'but' in there somewhere", he says, eyes earnest./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Loki nods, relieved. "None of us can do it all. Heimdall has the long sight to know, but not the power to act. I can feel the weight of prayers in my very bones, but much of what mortals ask are beyond me. Thor can grant wishes related to the power he has, but outside of his area?" He shrugs./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You... feel prayers?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""If addressed to me, yes. They are not so common anymore, but. Sometimes, still. Yes. And mortals had ways to make them louder. I shall spare you the bloody details."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Steve lets out an amused little huff. "Subtle." Then his eyes cast downwards, and there is a new uncertainty to his next words; marked with a fear that in any other being Loki would have taken it to carefully cultivate and turn it into a weapon to direct towards the very body it resides in. With Rogers, though, he yearns to isolate that fear and shield it, prevent others from using it against him. He had expected such a realisation to annoy him, but... There it is, and here he is to answer when he asks, "What does it mean? For— for my— are you the only ones?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And Loki shakes his head, smiling again. "No. There is a hierarchy to Gods, all the beings below and above, just as there is to you humans. You have your politicians and their inner workings they do not reveal to those under them; governments for each of your countries and span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"heroes—/span" the word seems a distasteful thing to rest on his tongue "like yourself and your companions, some with their identities or work kept secret. And you do not all know one another. So. There are the Norns above us, to know what we might not, and what is above them..." He gives his head another little shake. "It is not for me to know or say. Perhaps it would be easier for someone of your faith to think of us as guardians, over what we reside over?" He shapes the tone of his voice carefully around the last words; mortals' belief systems are easily insulted, he has noticed in others, and although his Captain is not nearly so defensive it would still not do to seem patronising./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He need not have worried, though./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""And that would make you the guardian of mischief", Steve smiles at him, amusement clear in his voice./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""And fire and chaos", Loki agrees. He tilts his head as if in thought. "Perhaps I ought to have guarded you from it instead? I would have been appreciated more."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Made you more popular?" Steve laughs, shaking his head. "Fire, though...?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Loki cringes a little at the thought of his true flesh, but not as much as he would have had it been anyone else asking. "It is what helps to keep me in this form without the aid of conscious thought, I think. Even with the power granted to him by Gungnir, I do not think Odin could have..." He hesitates. "Had it been only a glamour of his working, I would have lost it along with his favour. So. Something outside and above what powers he command; it was granted to me when the fates decided I be brought to Asgard." He shrugs with one shoulder. "It aids me, and I may aid others in the matters of it. Breathe sparks on flint meeting stone on a rainy night, grant new life to wet matches, coax a wildfire away from settlements; such things." He frowns. "I feel... compelled to," he admits like it vexes him that there is something in any world able to urge him into doing something he has not set his own mind to./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""And Chaos..." Steve starts, a glint in his eyes a tell-tale sign he has thought of something./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""That is trickier—" Loki tries to interrupt./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""If I were stuck in traffic chaos—" Loki groans, unable to close his eyes to Steve's growing smile, "and I prayed to you to get me out of it, could you?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Yes/span", Loki admits with his voice tight with annoyance, "but span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"please refrain/span from doing so. I may feel compelled to, but your paltry mortal traffic woes are beneath my powers—"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Steve just laughs. "I wouldn't. I couldn't." His voice turns sombre. "I believe in you because you are right here, but." He smiles, a little sadly now. "It is not quite the same as faith. I can't stop to—"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Loki shakes his head. "There is no need. We are not the only beings of our kind, and I cannot say what does or does not reside above." His voice is kind, unexpectedly so to even his own ears, and Steve grants him a smile so warm Loki wishes he had the power to elevate him to a godhood of his own; something hopeful and kind. But then he would have worshippers of his own and offerings beyond imagining, and might not look Loki's way anymore. So perhaps it is for the best, it being a thing beyond his powers to give. Genuine as his affection may be, he is still selfish in it./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Well, if there is a God of Traffic Chaos..." Steve starts with a grin that has Loki considering shoving a pillow in his face, interrupting his train of thought./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""There ought to be one of grander things, yes", he mutters, sullen, before clearing his throat of the subject. "You still believe," he says with reverence as he caresses Steve's shoulder; close to in awe of the unshakeable nature of it./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Of course I do. I was... curious, not in doubt. Not really." He blinks. "You can tell?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Loki chuckles. "Oh, I can smell the faith on you. It is an appealing scent for a God, no matter how small; it does not matter that it is not for me."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Steve looks as if he is unsure whether to believe him or not; a wise thing, Loki thinks, when it comes to trickster gods./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Well, yeah, everything else is for you" Steve says after a while, cheeks slightly flushed, and Loki leans in for a kiss and murmurs against his lips when they part./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16.065px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I believe... I was granted the better part, then."/p 


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